"If MAN Oron was working at optimum level, we wouldn't have had the issue of sending our boys to Philippines, it is a shame that when I heard about the school they went to in Philippines, Oron is even 50 times better than the school"
"It is all in the name of laundering money and that's just what I call it"
"If it is money, money is not the problem, we know the millions that were buried in the Philippines, the place is not even up to the standard of Oron, yet they went there all in the name of going out of Nigeria". These were the words of President, National Association of Stevedoring Companies, Mr. Bolaji Sunmola on the National Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP) . He spoke about two weeks ago.
Also recently, master mariner and managing director of Apapa Bulk Terminal Limited; Capt Mohammed Bashir said of the NSDP: “Those boys who are coming back are not earning any money, they are frustrated, I have met quite a number of them, I have so many CVs in my office now, they are looking for job and they don’t even have any experience. The 2 years is nothing, it is equivalent to ND. You need to get your practical experience and then go and do your HND and then you start doing your certification. It is totally wasting of government fund”.
Similarly, a former sole administrator of Maritime Academy of Nigeria; Engr said, “The way they presently run the programme was not the why the programme was created in the first instance.
“When NIMASA was conceptualizing this idea, the intention was to strengthen the academy and if possible the academy should invite foreign professionals to help strengthen it.
“I suggested to the DG then that we can invite two or three foreign lecturers like I did before I left the academy where Polish government were about to send us three professors and we already had government approval.
“Then, I thought NIMASA will assist the academy to partner the training in a manner that will strengthen the academy, but we found out that instead of strengthening the academy, they send them to Europe to do the basic courses of which the academy was established.”
These comments represent three perspectives to the current situation of things with the once-celebrated NSDP. Some have alleged that monies allotted for the programme can not be justifiably accounted for, others have lamented that rather than incorporate the Oron academy into the programme, the NSDP has been used to tactically killed the institution. Most importantly also is the fact that there is no well-thought-out post training arrangement either for seatime or for employment.
When it was conceived by the then-DG of NIMASA; Dr Ade Dosunmu, it was to be funded partly by the state governments of the prospective seafarer and NIMASA. But current statistics show that only 15 states and the FCT are participating, by providing counterpart funding.
About eight years after, the NSDP story is not pleasant. There are stories of cadets being abandoned without funding and upkeep. Even those who have graduated are yet to either secure sea time, while those who have managed to secure sea time could not find a job.
For instance, 200 Nigerian of such cadets at three universities in the Philippines have graduated with first class degree certificates in 2016. They are among the 2, 500 Nigerians studying at the University of Perpetual Help; Laspinas, University of Perpetual Help; Lyceum and the University of Cebu.
One other painful fall out of the NSDP is the deliberate ploy to kill MAN, Oron. Rather than spend millions of foreign exchange on the NSDP cadets, why didn’t NIMASA send some of the cadets to Oron, after all, the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology still trains qualified pilots for Nigeria.
Sadly, the facilities in some of these schools that NSDP cadets are sent to are not even up to what are obtainable in MAN, Oron.
Experts say MAN Oron only needs simulator and training ships to churn out qualified seafarers. The quantum of funds that are being expended annually on the NSDP can go a long way to make the institution world standard.
We are not by any means calling for the scrapping of the NSDP, but we are wholly in support of a review that will realign the programme with realities, and take care of such issues as sea time, employment and cost of training.
Recently, the latest batch of cadets of the programme besieged NIMASA, urging the agency to fix them up for the mandatory sea experience , without which they can not advance in the profession.
Of what use is the NSDP when there is no seatime for the cadets, of what use is the training when there are no ships to employ them. It is unthinkable that NIMAS could go ahead and send about 3000 cadets for foreign training in different seafaring fields without thought about how they would be employed
Capt Bashir put it more succinctly , when he said, “Cadetship is a long term project, just two year in classroom to learn the terminologies, theories, it is not enough for an officer to be onboard a ship, you need a vessel to actually do the practical and if you don’t have that, then, you are in a major mess. Having spent money on 2,500 cadets, they are all over the world now with no chance of getting a vessel to serve because Nigeria doesn’t have the vessels”.
If the ultimate objective of the NSDP is to make Nigeria an ‘exporter’ of sea farers, then, it is not being met. The reason is that they can not be employable until they undergo theoretical training and pass sea time training. They must be qualified to be employed. And when they are qualified, there must be jobs for them.
The objectives of the NSDP are not being met.
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